The main thing for me (besides getting used to new apps) is the fact I share with other people. Sometimes it’s directly an Excel spreadsheet. Sometimes it’s a Google Sheet. I wonder how much extra complication there would be if I had to open everything in the Apple apps, and save them in the right format when sharing back.
As far as OneDrive goes, I’m only using 1% of the 1 TB that comes with the subscription. So I guess that’s not so important to me either.
Same here. I frequently have to share Office documents with people, and I’ve run into just enough compatibility issues when trying to use other tools that it is easier to pay for a subscription than to troubleshoot while under time pressure. I also participate in my share of MS Teams meetings. When I stop exchanging documents with people, I’ll probably switch to Libre Office to maximize platform flexibility.
Office 2024 was made available for one-time (ie, nonsubscription) purchase last year. Would that work for you? (It works for me, and I use Word professionally.) Your request has been blocked. This could be due to several reasons.
LIbreOffice is better than you might think. Worth giving it a spin to try it out. The new Pages, Numbers, Keynote are full of ads for paid features only available with the creators subscription which is a plus if you need Final Cut Pro and the other media tools but it’s a waste if you don’t.
I’m not sure why, but I’ve been using Numbers daily since 15.1 came out and I have not seen a single ad. I’ve opened Pages a few times and haven’t seen ads there, either.
Where are these ads? Are they pop-up ads as you use the apps?
Which version are you using?
There used to be a simple DB program by Apple called Bento, I purchased it and it was very good for small home type databases, sadly it was discontinued years ago…now there is something almost similar called Tap Forms Pro in the App Store, but sadly it is now a subscription based software…
That was an odd one.
You know what I want? I want Filemaker for normal folks. It used to be an expensive option for straight-forward databases but it worked sooo well! I wrote a few very complicated databases for clients (tens of tables, hundreds of scripts, file system integration, mailing lists, etc.) but what I miss is how incredibly easy it was to build a good looking, useful, DB for simple purposes. And I’ve got a lot of those simple DB’s strewn around and I can’t use them because years ago Filemaker aimed at the enterprise market and raised their prices accordingly. I understand why they did it: an attractive home buyer price just won’t do it for the development work of a powerful, reliable, database but I’m still more than irritated years later.
The only alternatives I’ve found are Panorama which has a most interesting subscription system, essentially pay-as-you-go, and is very powerful & mature. On a much lower scale, Ninox, which is really weird in some ways with, er, questionable documentation but you can build a pretty useful DB quickly. Ninox has had some success with European companies because of their extensive web support. You can put a quick DB together with it but compared to Filemaker it’s peculiarly rigid.
Dave
Not to get off topic too much, but I have been using Tap Forms Pro to fill the database gap. Not as powerful as Filemaker, which I still have the version 17 and have used a lot in the past, but they priced themselves out of the personal market and Tap Forms works for my simple needs, syncs with my iPad, and even has scripting features (which I don’t use at this time).
Since retiring, I have lost my license for Microsoft products and am getting by with Apple’s free apps. I am still waiting for their “premium” photo product and have no need for the current Pro products offered.
Especially this one.
(Not a productivity app bug, but still.)
I really do hope a law firm will go scorched earth on Microsoft and other AI providers. This is not the first time an AI bug has led to use of private data to build models beyond contractual scope.
Oh man! I remember that. I had a client buy it and it was so simple and I didn’t need to help them with it.
I, too, am one for LibreOffice. However, there is no email client (Outlook alt), no OneDrive storage, no communications-collaboration app (Teams).
The discounted 2024 Office software link posted is for Home version, which is only Word, Powerpoint and Excel. No Outlook, or other apps that 365 includes. That might suffice for some though.
I know LibreOffice is free (donation ware) and recommend kicking them something if you use it. I found it great for importing/converting old WordPress files along with keeping language and formatting.
Wow! I just looked at Tap Forms Pro and it is wildly different from the Tap Forms I looked at and dismissed X years ago. I just read most of the manual and found it very sophisticated, with a huge set of field types, Mac & IOS, relational database support (though with an odd view of that which will bemuse Filemaker and SQL persons at first), import, export, scripting (javascript, oy!), and so on.
There’s a 14 day trial period which I will try but not tonight (
). A subscription of $50/year seems quite reasonable and very happily below the current Filemaker subscriptions.
Thanks for mentioning it!
Dave
Which makes it DOA for me. I refuse to use subscription software.
I understand what you mean, and am equally resistant to them, but, er, don’t suppose you subscribe to periodicals or the like which you could drop as opposed to your electricity subscription but for some reason you keep subscribed?
You can do open-source software but you know? with the exception of server-level software which is absolutely top-notch, it’s just not as good for consumer-level apps.
You can find developers that share your sentiments, that offer one-time purchases with occasional upgrades for a fee, but the landscape has changed.
Dave
Just dropped a magazine that I subscribed to for 35+ years because they decided to go online. I also tried to switch my daily paper that I only ended up reading the weather, the Michael Reagan and Argus Hamilton columns, and LttEs on the opinion page from the print to online because it was cheaper; the person I had to deal with was so arrogant and sarcastic, that I cancelled altogether! I’ll go to the library and read it.
I’ve crunched the numbers on standalone vs. subscription and found that over the lifetime of a standalone purchase (major version), the subscription had a much higher cost per year.
From now on, I’m going to delete all posts that merely restate a personal policy for the umpteenth time.
Just FYI, I use LibreOffice to open my old AppleWorks documents, some as old as 1990! It is an amazing program for that.
I’ve had it open documents written in Write Now (remember that competitor to MacWrite?) from 1987.
Wow! That is what makes it such a great app. I’ve recovered long lost sermons from Appleworks. Had to do it because I was having trouble sleeping at night lol. What gets me is how well it captures everything with minimal need to correct anything. Thanks for reminding me about Write Now - I’m old enough to remember it well…